Recent Overseas Trip - Report Back.

[Thirsty Boy]

Hey Ho AHBers - Been overseas for a month and drank a lot of good beer. Thought I'd share some beer drinking adventure.

Went to

Hawaii, New York, Paris, London, Wales, Hong Kong

The object of the game was to see live Jazz, drink a lot of good beer and generally swan about. Achieved!

We drank.....

USA

(Waikiki)
Kona Brewing – Longboard Island Lager
Kona Brewing – Primo Pils
Kona Brewing – Fire Rock Pale Ale
Blue Moon – Witbier
Redhook – ESB
Kona Brewing – Coco Loco Brown
Loast Coast – Downtown Brown
Redhook – IPA
Mehana Brewing – Hawaii Lager
Sam Adams – Boston Lager
Sam Adams – Summer Ale
Kona Brewing – Big Wave Ale
Maui Brewing – Bikini Blond Lager

(New York City)
AB – Budweiser
Lagunitas – Czech Pils
Stoudt’s – Heifer in Wheat
Arcadia – Sky High Rye
Avery - White Rascal (Witbier)
Dogfishhead – India Brown Ale
Great Divide – Titan IPA (cask)
Sierra Nevada – Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale
Anchor – Anchor Steam
Sierra Nevada – Pale Ale
Sierra Nevada – Torpedo Extr IPA
Harlem Brewing Co – Sugar Hill Golden Ale
Bass – Pale Ale
Brooklyn Brewery – Weiss
Brooklyn Brewery – English IPA
Brooklyn Brewery - Lager
Southern Tier – Harvest Ale
Dogfishhead – Punkin Ale
Kelso Brewery – IPA
Brouwerij De Dochter van de Korenaar – Embrasse
Firestone Walker – Union Jack (American ESB)
Harpoon – Pott’s Landbier
Atwater Block – Wheat (American Hefe)
Avery – The Kaiser (Imperial Octoberfest)
Captain Lawrence – Fresh Chester Pale Ale
Heartland Brewery – Cornhusker Lager
Heartland Brewery – Indian River Light (spiced pale ale)
21st Ammendment – Black IPA
Bear Republic – Racer 5 IPA
Stone – Levitation (American Amber)
Greenport – Anniversary Ale (Belgian Strong Pale)
He’Brew (Schmaltz Brewing) – He’Brew Bittersweet Lenny’s Rye IIPA (cask)
Founders – Porter (Brown Porter)
Southern Tier – Hop Sun (American wheat)
Maui Brewing – Big Swell IPA
Captain Lawrence – Kolsch
Chelsea Brweing – Blonde Ale
Magic Hat - #9
Avery – Dugana (IIPA)
Chelsea Brewing – NY State Wet Hop (Pale Ale) (Cask)
Cottrell Brewing – Old Yankee Ale (American Amber)
Ommegang – Chocolate Indulgence Stout
Troegs – Dead Reckoning (American Brown) (Cask)
Wolaver’s – Organic Pumpkin Ale
Oscar Blues – Dale’s Pale Ale
Green Flash – IPA

….Plus quite a few More….

FRANCE
(Paris)
Affligem – Blonde
Leffe – Blonde
Reine Mathilde – Cidre Brut (Normandy Cider)
InBev – Stella

ENGLAND
(London)
Inbev – Stella
SN – Fosters
Molson Coors – Carling
Timothy Taylor – Landlord (Cask)
Sharp’s – Doom Bar (Cask)
Titanic – Triple Screw (Cask)
Green King – Royal London (Cask)
Harvey’s – Sussox Best Bitter (Cask)
Meantime – Wheat (Cask)
Brewdog – Punk IPA (on normal tap)
Westgate Brewery – Bonkers Conkers (chestnut ale) (Cask)
Moreland Brewery (Green King) – Old Speckled Hen (Cask)
Green King – Abbot Ale (Cask)
Green King – The George Inn Ale (Cask)
Green King – IPA (Cask)
Brewdog – Punk IPA (Cask)
Brewster’s – Marquis (Cask)
Castle Rock Brewery – Harvest Pale ale (Cask)
Thwaites – Original Best Bitter (Cask)
Adelstones – Cloudy Cider (Cask)
Brewdog – The Edge (Cask)
Bass – Pale Ale (Cask)
Wyerepiddle Brewery – Summerfall (Cask)
Black Sheep – Best Bitter (Cask)
Adnams – Broadside (Cask)

WALES
(Llanrhytyd)
Hancock’s – HB (Cask)
Brains Brewery – The reverend James (Cask)
(Cardigan)
Worthingtons – Smoothflow
(Ffynnon)
Gwaun Valley Brewery – Light Ale (bottle)
Whychwood Brewery – Hobgoblin (bottle)
(???) - some little backwater pub our host took us too...
Worthingtons – Bitter (Gravity Cask)
(Tenby)
Skinners – Betty Stogs (Cask)
Hook Norton Brewery – Copper Ale (Cask)

HONG KONG
Calsberg – Carlsberg

Brought Home With Me

Gwaun Valley Brewery – Bitter Ale
Gwaun Valley Brewery – Dark Ale
Maui Brewing – Coconut Porter
Dr Fritz Briem Doemens Institute – 1809 Berliner Weisse

Top 10 Beers

Brewdog – Punk IPA on Cask
Greenflash - IPA
He’Brew - Bittersweet Lenny’s Rye IIPA
Bear Republic - Racer 5 IPA
Redhook - ESB
Oscar Blues - Dales Pale Ale
Black Sheep - Best Bitter
Avery - Dugana
Sharps - Doom Bar
Brewdog - The Edge


Best Beer Bars/Pubs

Waikiki – None Really. The Yardhouse had 100+ beers on tap which was impressive, but was otherwise a shithole. Best beer bar wasn’t a beer bar at all – it was drinking a Mai Tai or 3 at sunset watching a former Miss Hawaii perform hula to really good live music while the waves washed up on Waikiki beach 20 meters away

New York - I liked The Pony Bar in Hells Kitchen – Strictly American craft beers on tap. 20 of them and 2 Handpumps. Small and sometimes crowded, but I liked it. $5 beers (mostly in pints except for the really strong ones) except for happy hour, when they were $4. Barcade in Brooklyn was pretty good too – 10 or 12 craft taps, a handpump and the place was full of original 1980’s arcade video games. d.b.a. in the East Village was another good bar that I enjoyed sitting in with a fine beer selection, although anything in this area got stupidly busy at nighttime so it was an afternoon/early evening venue if you wanted to relax about your drinking. Every Single convenience store or supermarket – had a beer selection that would make an Aussie beer geek go weak at the knees… and the beer is cheap as chips.

Paris – no beer venues to speak of, but we found a little creperie and cider house in St Paul called La Cidrerie du Marais on Rue de Svign just a minute’s walk away from the St Paul Metro Station. Normandy, Breton, Basque and other ciders both in the bottle and on tap. Lovely little place.

London – For pure beer enjoyment we liked The Market Porter near Borough Market in Southwark. Nice pub and really good selection of Handpumps and interesting normal tap beers as well. The best selection of beer we found was The Globe on Moorgate near London Wall – 14 handpumped ales and quite a few normal taps. But we hit it at 5:30 on Friday afternoon, so the after work drink crowd was a bit thick and fast. Might be a lovely place for a drink any other time. For just liking the Pub, and also it had a decent selection of beer – We loved the George Inn on Borough High St in Southwark (Handily just around the corner from the Market Porter) – this place has been a pub since the 13th century and was re-built after a fire in 1676 and that’s the building you sit in now for a beer, unless you are sitting in the fantastic yard/beer garden.

Summary – My liver Hurts!!

The beer scene in New York is fantastic… but holy crap those septics like their craft beer strong. Beers under 5% were almost non existent, Beers between 5&6% were in the minority … most were in the 6-7% or above range. And they serve it in pints….6-7% beer in pints with no option for a smaller serving. To be honest, this quite severely limited the number and range of beers I was willing and able to taste. I found that if I wanted to be able to actually try a decent selection of beers before I fell off my barstool – I really did have to steer away from some of the stronger and unfortunately more interesting sounding beers – Oh I can handle a couple of middies of 9-10% IIPA or Barleywine, but on top of the several pints of 6-7% stock standard IPA etc… they finished you off pretty damn fast.

The UK was a hell of a lot easier – sub 5% beers and you could order a half pint for pretty much half the cost of a full pint. Between Holly and I we could walk into a pub with 4 or 5 beers on tap, try them all and walk to the next pub still looking for more. We had 3 drinking days in London and managed almost half as many different beers as we managed in 2&1/2 weeks in the US. We ended up under the table half the time in the US and nicely merry was the best we came up with in the UK. Plus – I’m not sure that at any time while we were in London, were we ever in fact out of eyeshot of a pub!! There was a new one on every single corner… seriously, never seen such a density of boozers anywhere in my life.

I vote UK… lots of interesting new beers, a lot of great beers that have been around for ages – and you can manage it without drinking yourself into liver failure by the end of your first week.

Time to brew some nice Bitters and get my handpump up and running!!!

TB

 

[Snow]

TB,

awesome trip report! Sheesh you drank a lot of beer. Great summary and fits in with what I've heard from others. I am insanely jealous. My wife wouldn't let me drink anywhere near that much if we went on a similar trip .

Cheers - Snow.

 

[manticle]

Sounds fantastic (except for the live jazz unless Jelly Roll Morton was playing).

 

[outbreak]

Wow... I am rather jealous.

 

[bradsbrew]

:icon_drool2: :icon_drool2: :icon_drool2: . Nice report. Jealous.................yes I am.

 

[Shed101]

Good work :icon_drunk:

... I mean you claim to have managed to drink a Carling and a Worthington's smoothflow :icon_vomit:

 

[Thirsty Boy]

TB,

awesome trip report! Sheesh you drank a lot of beer. Great summary and fits in with what I've heard from others. I am insanely jealous. My wife wouldn't let me drink anywhere near that much if we went on a similar trip .

Cheers - Snow.

The wife was right there drinking with me - That's a totalized list of our combined drinking. It was usually drink half your pint then swap glasses. One for one mainly - I seriously doubt I managed to drink even so much as one more beer than her on the whole trip... I probably managed a few more G&Ts in Hong Kong though.... wrote myself off sitting at the bar off while she was dancing with an old workmate of hers at some shitty ex-pat bar on Hong Kong island.

Its good to have a beer drinkin' missus.

Shed101 - Carling was actually pretty good as far as Macro Lager is concerned. Clean, hoppy, easy to drink. Smoothflow was not.....

 

[bum]

Nice report, Thirsty.

Especially jealous of the English leg (though not the pasty English legs).

 

[Duff]

Nice trip TB.

Racer 5 rocks, couple of months to go and I'm back for my annual injection.

 

[roo_dr]

Doom Bar and Betty Stog's... :icon_drool2:

A mate's wedding in Truro in April we were forced to empty several casks of both, heaven!

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

did you pick up a spare liver in your travels

 

[nala]

Fantastic trip, I am interested to know if the UK beer prices are anything like our's here in WA, for a pint of Little Creatures Pale Ale
$11, this is a good example of a craft beer that there are so many of in the UK as you have no doubt found, personally I think we are paying over the top. Thank you for sharing your fantastic holiday with us.
Alan

 

[Josh]

Sounds like a great trip TB. Thanks for the report.

 

[proudscum]

Fantastic trip, I am interested to know if the UK beer prices are anything like our's here in WA, for a pint of Little Creatures Pale Ale
$11, this is a good example of a craft beer that there are so many of in the UK as you have no doubt found, personally I think we are paying over the top. Thank you for sharing your fantastic holiday with us.
Alan

USA last year for 10 days and sampled 45 craft beers in the end i didn't bother with SAM Adams or sierra Nevada high point would be

blues point..toasted lager
sixth sense ...cream ale
anchor...steam
captain Lawrence....something aged and strong and expensive.

yep $2 craft beers at the corner store.
Also a great place called Beertable in Brooklyn that had only been open for 2 weeks that had limited edition beers/aged beers starting at $13 for375ml up $199 for grande cru style bottles.

 

[Zizzle]

Top stuff. A great brag

I think Ross and Dave knocked off most of that NY beer list on the first day they landed.

I spent 2 years living in the West Village. Most mornings of that were with a hangover.

There are so many great beer pubs in NY it's not funny. I don't think you hit any of the best ones!

For whoever is inspired in NY next time, in my preferred order:

Burp Castle (just great, Belgium influence. You can sssshhhh! people there. Great monk mural on the walls)
Jimmy's 43 (next door to Burp Castle. Also does slow food.)
Blind Tiger (pretty busy, go early arvo)
Peculiar Pub (down the road on Bleecker St, over 100 bottled beers, good tap selection)
The Ginger Man (midtown, 70 odd taps of micros)
Rattle & Hum (try the IPA brined fries)
Shaffer's City (a quiet local favourite, great micros)
d.b.a (not bad range. Often full of wall street wankers. Probably bar mostly like to run in an Aussie in)
Barcade - a bit out of the way if you are staying in manhattan. Not a huge range, but usually some unusual ones.
The Beer Table (Brooklyn - very pricey, but unusual beers)
Brooklyn Brewery (packs out with hipsters)
The Waterfront Ale house (some cask ales and tap range)
Zum Schnider (German beers and food)
Chelsea Brewery (beers aren't great, but views of the Hudson and NJ are)


Having since moved out of the Big Apple, I've gotta say that NY beers are pretty expensive: $6-$8 plus a tip on top. The choice isn't often as good out of the big cities, but you can nearly always get a decent IPA. The fallback is always Sierra Nevada Pale Ales.

I think Colorado is my favourite state though. Lots of breweries and some awesome scenery. We stock up on beer every time we go. Dale's Pale Ale is our go to favourite beer.

One time after a trip I counted 31 different beers in the house, not including our homebrew (and incidentally not a single lager).

The hardest part when we go beer shopping is just remembering what we have tried and what we liked. To aid in that I have started blogging mini reviews with a score from each of us. Can hit it from the phone when we are in a beer megastore.

And you are not wrong on the % alcohol in beer. See what no excise on alcohol does? And you won't see people swilling a 11% Chocolate Stout even if it still only costs $10 for a 6-pack of it.

But yeah, makes the beer scene in Australia look pretty sad.

 

[brad05]

Sounds like an awesome trip. :beer:

I'm about to head off on a month long trip very soon and was wondering if anyone can give me some interesting pubs or breweries to visit. Places I'm visiting are; Rome, Florence, Venice, Nice, Toulouse, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin and spending about another 8 days with relatives on the Bordensee in south Germany near the Swiss border.

I've also heard there is a website I can go to. Anyone know what that is?

Cheers,
Brad

 

[winkle]

Sounds like an awesome trip. :beer:

I'm about to head off on a month long trip very soon and was wondering if anyone can give me some interesting pubs or breweries to visit. Places I'm visiting are; Rome, Florence, Venice, Nice, Toulouse, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin and spending about another 8 days with relatives on the Bordensee in south Germany near the Swiss border.

I've also heard there is a website I can go to. Anyone know what that is?

Cheers,
Brad

Look up the places section on Ratebeer, that should give you a starting point.

 

[dogs01]

Fantastic trip report. Sounds just as good as my staying 15 days above the Rogue pub in Newport Oregon a few weeks ago.
Tasted a couple of new beers that sadly will not make it to Aus. John Maier is God when it comes to brewing.

 

[Zizzle]

Not sure if it covers the world, but this is good for the US:

http://beermapping.com/

 

[bconnery]

Sounds like an awesome trip. :beer:

I'm about to head off on a month long trip very soon and was wondering if anyone can give me some interesting pubs or breweries to visit. Places I'm visiting are; Rome, Florence, Venice, Nice, Toulouse, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin and spending about another 8 days with relatives on the Bordensee in south Germany near the Swiss border.

I've also heard there is a website I can go to. Anyone know what that is?

Cheers,
Brad

I don't know if it is the one but beeradvocate.com has a beerfly, or something, section with information about beer venues.
For London try Camra, the trick with London will be reducing your choices...

In Amsterdam I'd recommend Brouwerij t'IJ (spelling?), a brewpub in a windmill a little out of the main tourist drag.
de Beiraad (sp?) had a nice range.
This information is all 8 years old though.

Italy now has a growing microbrewery scene, but tracking them down may not be as easy, I don't know. They might still be fairly local and not available throughout the country.

In Nice I got some good beers in bottleshops and markets, but not so much in pubs.